The most comfortable pillow for students today? Their desk. In high school it seems like everyone is sleep deprived. Many times a common sight in a classroom is seeing many students with their heads down.

According to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, it says that the healthy amount of sleep for a teenager is about 9 to 9 ½ hours of sleep. Here at SBHS students only get an average of five hours.Nicholas Crianza, a freshman at South Broward High, is an example of this. Crianza only sleeps for about 5 hours every night.

“I stay up late playing video games instead of sleeping because it entertains me more”, said Crianza. On some instances Crianza would rather sleep than do other things, like study or be on his phone.

In the United States, the average teenager gets about 71/2 hours of sleep. Many students choose to stay up longer and sleep less. Some play video games, while others stay on their phone.Some of these students have the choice to sleep earlier than they usually do but they don’t. Many students do not work after school and don’t study as well. They would rather spend their time watching Youtube or television.

These distractions are everywhere. Students can be distracted by their friends, by social media and by their electronics.Another student who attends South Broward High is Elias Quiroz. He does not work after school. Instead he chooses to be on his phone or play the popular game ‘Fortnite’.

“I do homework sometimes, but most of the time if I am not sleeping then I am playing video games till late” said Quiroz.

This idea of what people say seems to repeat itself. Many would rather be awake late than resting for the next day.Then there is Britney Nunez, she is a 15 year old Venezuelan girl who also attends SBHS. As a student she is also prone to many distractions. She is not like the others mentioned though, Nunez is distracted by her homework.

“Teachers give too much homework and while I care a lot about school I also care a lot about sleeping.” said Nunez.

While students can be distracted by many things, many aren’t distracted by homework. Some students who are academically focused could be mentally forced to complete work given to them.Students would have stay up to finish assignments or to complete projects. Students who are part of higher classes would receive more work than other students.

This can be bad in some instances if some teachers gave excessive amounts of homework. In this event it would force students to stay up later than necessary. Students who are sleep deprived can be quickly irritated or have sudden mood swings. Being sleep deprived can also negatively affect someone’s academic progress. Things like lower grade averages and behavior can be a result of not sleeping a proper amount of time.

So please students of SBHS… get some…Zs.